How can high-end restaurants serve up dinners of the same quality?
Baked snails with Shetland sassearmeat, garlic and parsley served with croutons
by food writer and novelist Sue Lawrence
I know I’ve not been the only one during these challenging past few months to be constantly amazed at the resourcefulness and ingenuity of chefs and restaurateurs. Not only do they strive to keep their restaurants afloat and staff working, they also never forget their producers and the long chain of suppliers involved.
I can’t recall precisely when ‘At Home’ or ‘Take Away’ dinners first began during this pandemic (don’t the weeks and months just roll on endlessly and wearily) but I remember thinking – how can high-end restaurants serve up dinners of the same quality we’d enjoy inside their restaurants? And instead we heat them up in our own kitchens and serve them without the wonderful professional waiting staff to hand. We are the ones checking the sauce doesn’t catch in the pan or the bisque boil over. We’re the ones lighting the candles and setting the tables nicely in an attempt to emulate the atmosphere of our favourites restaurants.
Most of all, I suppose I wondered how chefs, used to cooking to order and plating up for immediate consumption, could cook the same quality food that is presented to the customer not on beautiful plates or hand crafted bowls, but in eco-friendly packaging that can then sit happily in diners’ fridges until required. These are top chefs, not caterers who are used to providing food in trays for aircraft. (Ah, remember the days of air travel…). And yet, they’ve not only succeeded, they’ve excelled.
Take, for example, our l’escargot bleu dinner last night. Hand-delivered by a masked Fred, it came with easy reheating instructions. All we had to do was open the wine. The snails were paired with ‘sassaermaet’, a traditional, highly spiced sausagemeat from Shetland. Ronnie Eunson’s son Jakob makes it not only for l'escargot bleu but for Shetlanders to buy in food shops such as Ann Johnson’s wonderful emporium Scoop in Lerwick. I can’t wait for the Barra snails to waken from their hibernation; then this starter will be a true dish of Scottish islands. A baguette from the wonderful Company bakery made it all even more splendid.
Our main course was roe deer daube: fork-tender meat in a delicious sauce. Dessert was divine duck egg iles flottantes. Sometimes in our house we share puddings; this was not that moment, however! Everything is expertly prepared from prime ingredients.
It’s not easy (nothing is right now) but it’s all done with professionalism - and with a smile. Can’t really ask for anything more.
So thank you, from grateful customers, to all chefs and restaurateurs continuing to cook for us in these challenging times.